Ghosts of Roundtables Past

Shows like Game of Thrones, Black Sails, and that Spartacus series that was on Starz trot out sleazy perversions on a weekly basis that would have sent many a film in the past to the “banned in 31 countries” scrap heap. There’s more gore, incest, twisted sex, and nudity in those shows than in Island of Death, and yet most viewers, including viewers not accustomed to scummy exploitation films, accept it lovingly into their lives while still finding something like Island of Death to be “too much.” There’s something about context, or about presentation. Sleaze and weirdness is always more effective when it’s presented in a rawer, less technically polished medium, and perhaps the concentrated weirdness, cinematic style, and film grain render an old exploitation film more shocking even when, quantitatively, it should be less shocking.